London-based mobile tech company YPlan said on Wednesday that it has received a $12 million (£7.9m) in Series A financing. Leading the round were General Catalyst Partners and existing investors Wellington Partners and Octopus Investments. Other investors that participated were A-Grade, SLOW Ventures Fund, and Shakil Khan, investor and advisor to Spotify and Summly.
PRESS RELEASE
British mobile start-up YPlan today announces a $12m (£7.9m) Series A financing, one of the largest in Europe this year. Following its successful London launch in November 2012, the world’s first mobile-only spontaneous going out app will be using the funding to fuel its expansion in the United States, with New York launching during the second half of 2013.
Following a steep period of growth, YPlan has made its way onto over 10% of London’s iPhones, hitting the 200,000 downloads milestone just last month.
Leading this latest funding round is US venture capital firm General Catalyst Partners (investors in Kayak and Airbnb), and YPlan’s existing institutional backers Wellington Partners (investors in Hailo and Spotify) and Octopus Investments (investors in SwiftKey and Graze.com). The round has also attracted a star group of co-investors including A-Grade, Kevin Colleran and David Morin’s SLOW Ventures Fund, and Shakil Khan, investor and advisor to Spotify and Summly.
YPlan’s co-founder and CEO, Rytis Vitkauskas said: “Just six months after launching we’ve taken London by storm and transformed YPlan from concept into an exciting mobile-only business that is going global.”
“This investment will help us take YPlan international; including cities within the US and Europe, but it also brings with it an amazing breadth of expertise to help us perfect our secret sauce of a beautiful, simple and inspiring way to have a great night out, tonight.”
General Catalyst partner Adam Valkin, previously an early-stage investor in several UK companies such as LOVEFiLM and Hailo said: “YPlan has the opportunity to become a seminal mobile commerce company. It has grown incredibly fast in London by delighting customers with simplicity, quality and access. Next step is to make this phenomenon a global one.”
Following this latest injection of capital and expertise to the business, YPlan will continue to provide a carefully curated list of up to 15 events to go to every night. In just two taps people can discover and go to anything from a Beyoncé show to an invitation-only event like Sofar Sounds, or one of their city’s best-kept secrets like chessboxing. YPlan is currently live in London, with new city launches planned for later this year.
The YPlan app is available free on iPad, iPhone or iPod touch at: www.yplanapp.com/download
YPlan facts and figures:
• Exclusive tickets to sold out events
• Over 2,500 events since launch
• $1.7 million seed funding in July 2012, led by Wellington Partners and Octopus Investments
• 200,000 downloads
• Over 10% of iPhones in London carry the app.
About YPlan
YPlan is a mobile technology company based in London and founded in 2012. YPlan was created to give people the chance to be truly spontaneous, providing them only the best, handpicked nights in London on the YPlan app.
Short lines: YPlan is tonight’s going out app. Get inspired, pay in two taps and go. Download the free
app now: www.yplanapp.com/download
New York
The YPlan team has already opened its New York office and is currently hiring. The app will formally launch to New York in the second half of 2013. YPlan chose New York as its second city due to its vibrant social scene, variety of events and high smartphone penetration.
General Catalyst Partners
General Catalyst Partners is a venture capital and growth equity firm that invests in exceptional entrepreneurs who are building the technology-based companies that will lead innovation and transform industries. Founded in 2000, General Catalyst Partners leverages its principals’ extensive operational, business development and technological expertise to provide portfolio companies with a catalyst for success through business-building and partnership development assistance.
General Catalyst has offices in Cambridge, MA and Palo Alto, CA. For more information, please visit:
www.generalcatalyst.com
About Octopus Investments
Founded in 2000, Octopus is one of the UK’s fastest growing investment management companies.
We currently manage £3 billion assets on behalf of 50,000 customers.
The Ventures team at Octopus are straight talking human investors that back talented people rather than specific sectors. We focus on identifying fast growth businesses which can scale explosively to create, transform or dominate an industry. We can invest from £250,000 to £5 million and prefer to partner teams based in the UK.
The work of our Ventures team is supported by access to the Octopus Venture Partners, a network of approximately 100 outstanding business leaders, entrepreneurs and private investors providing an invaluable wealth of expertise and resource for our portfolio companies, as well as investing on a deal-by-deal basis alongside Octopus venture funds. This blend of knowledge and skill has allowed us to help many great companies across several sectors thrive in recent years including Zoopla; Graze.com; SwiftKey; and, Secret Escapes.
About Wellington Partners
Wellington Partners is one of the most successful pan-European venture capital firms. With some €800 million under management and offices in London, Munich, Palo Alto and Zurich, the firm invests into companies throughout Europe that have the potential to become global leaders, in the areas of Digital Media, Software, Resource Efficiency and Life Sciences.
Since 1998, Wellington Partners has invested in more than 100 European companies, including now publicly traded Actelion and XING and privately held companies like Adconion, Alando (acquired by eBay), Ciao (acquired by Microsoft), Spotify, Hailo, Livebookings and Qype (acquired by Yelp).
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